Stop 4: Cal f. Johnson & the Cal Johnson recreation center

507 S Hall of Fame Dr, Knoxville, TN 37915

Welcome to the Beck Cultural Exchange Center Cultural Corridor. You are currently located at Stop 4 of the Corridor Trail: The Cal Johnson Stop at the Cal Johnson Recreation Center.

Who was Cal F. Johnson?

Knoxville's Successful Black Businessman

Cal F. Johnson was born in enslavement on October 18, 1844. When he died in 1925, he was one of the wealthiest men in the South. Johnson was a generous and business savvy individual who rose to fame for his ownership of Knoxville’s premier race track (now known as Speedway Circle) and some of the South’s best race horses. Locally, his name was also tied to some of the most popular saloons patronized by both Black and white citizens in Downtown Knoxville prior to the Prohibition Era, The Popular Log Saloon, The Central Popular Log Saloon, and The Lone Tree Saloon (formerly the Popular Log). To his credit, “only the best grades of whiskey and beer were served over his counters,” and his customers remembered him for having the “cleanest and nicest saloon in town.” In 1922, he erected Cal F. Johnson Park for the community. The park is also home to Cal Johnson Recreation Center at the location of 507 Hall of Fame Drive.

"I started out when many were prejudiced against my color, and when it looked like the negroes had been set free just to starve. But I went to work, and I don't mean to brag at all when I say that I have done pretty well, I think."


- Cal F. Johnson, "A Man's Success," (Knoxville News-Sentinel, 1897)

Early History

Calvin "Cal" Fackler Johnson was born enslaved on October 14, 1844, in Knoxville, Tennessee to Cupid and Harriet McClung Johnson. Harriet was born August 18, 1813 on the McClung Farm at Campbell Station. Cupid Johnson, Cal's father, was born circa 1809, trained horses and was a winning jockey. He was an early influence for Cal who would go on to develop a love for horses.

Slavery In Knoxville, 1796-1865

Knoxville was founded in 1796. During the city's early history, Black residents, both enslaved and free, played a foundational role in shaping the city's growth and development. Though Knoxville did not have a large plantation economy seen in other parts of the South, slavery was still deeply embedded in its social and economic structure.


Enslaved individuals in Knoxville were forced into domestic labor, skilled trades, and agricultural work such as tending livestock. Some were trained in crafts or hired out for labor. 


Following emancipation, Black Knoxville citizens began building lives and institutions of their own. They established churches and schools, founded businesses, published newspapers, and served in positions of leadership which laid the foundation for future generations. Officially the period of slavery in Tennessee lasted from 1796 to 1865. 

Cupid Johnson (1809-1858)

Cupid Johnson was born circa 1809. While little is known about his very early life, he at one time was owned by William S. Howell of Grainger Counter, Tennessee. Howell also owned property on State Street near the McClung family who owned Harriet. Cupid was a horse trainer and winning jockey. Although a slave, he traveled with racing horses and enjoyed a certain amount of privileges in that capacity. After his owner William Howell died, he was inherited by Howell family members and sold to the McClungs in 1840 when he was about years old. This arrangement united him and Harriet under the same family ownership.


Although he and Harriet had other children, Cal was born four years later and became a part of the McClung family. He died at age 49 in January 1858, when Cal was 14 years old.

Harriet McClung Johnson (1813-1893)

Harriet McClung Johnson was born August 18, 1813 on the McClung Farm at Campbell Station. She was the house servant of Charles and Margaret White Clung. According to the late historian Dr. Robert J. Booker, handwritten items in her Bible indicate that she could read and write. After the war, she and her older son bought a house and lot on Willow Avenue in The Bottom, October 10, 1870 where they operated a hotel/restaurant/grocery store. While enslaved, Harriet met Cupid Johnson who was sold to the McClungs in 1840. This arrangement united the two and eventually the couple would rear several children, including Cal Johnson in 1844. Harriet was a part of Cal’s life until she died at the age of 81 on August 13, 1894. 


Cal F. Johnson (1844-1925)

Cal F. Johnson (born Calvin Fackler Johnson) grew up in enslavement from the time of his birth until he was 21 years old. Him and his family were enslaved by the McClung family in Knoxville. At age fourteen, he moved to the McClung farm  in the Campbell Station area to care for its horses. His freedom came as a result of slavery being abolished in 1865, two years after The Emancipation Proclamation was issued by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln.


Johnson had very little money when he became free and what he did have in his possession, he used to buy a grocery. However, the grocery business did not take off and Johnson turned to working at various jobs in homes of people in Knoxville. After saving enough, he bought a team of horses and a wagon.


At the end of the Civil War (1861-1865), he recieved a contrast to exhume the bodies of soldiers from temporary graves and rebury them in the National Cemetery or private graves.

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Cal's Saloon Business

The money Cal Johnson made exhuming bodies during the war was used to start his saloon business in Knoxville. He opened his first saloon in 1879 on the corner of Gay Street and Wall Avenue, the Poplar Log (later renamed Lone Tree Saloon because it had the only tree left on Gay Street). He served Black and white patrons. After seven years of operation, he had accumulated $20,000 and with that, purchased another property at Vine and Central. As early as 1883, he was estimated to be worth $75,000 in money and property.

Image: Cal F. Johnson's Business Card

Cal F. Johnson Black Mountain Rum

The Cal F. Johnson Black Mountain Rum, signed and commissioned by the Old Tennessee Distilling Co., was created in 2017 as one of two specialty rums honoring Johnson. This variety is a column-distilled, molasses-based rum, bottled unaged at 84 proof, and is part of a broader line of flavored rums offered by the company.

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cAL The Horeseman

With the success of his saloon business, Johnson began buying horses. His obituary in the April 1925 Knoxville Journal reported that he came into national prominence in 1893 when one of his prize winning horses, "George Condit" won the title of "Champion Standard Bred Trotter of the World" at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago. His affinity for buying strong horses earned him credit for having one of the finest strings of race horses in the South.


Johnson continued his horsemanship when he purchased the property to be used as a racetrack located in the Burlington area of Knoxville known as Speedway Circle. Speedway Circle became famous for horse racing circa 1897 to 1915. The oval-shaped land is now the sight of neighborhood residences.


Erected in 2020 by Tennessee Historical Commission, a historical marker stands at the area of Speedway Circle.

Speedway Circle Historical Marker Database

Race Horses at Cal Johnson's Race Track, June 19, 1915

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"Cal Johnson's track from slavery to speedway riches"

Learn about the history of Speedway Circle and the legacy of Cal F. Johnson. The late Historian, Civil Rights Activist, and former Director of Beck Cultural Exchange Center Dr. Robert J. Booker is featured in this short documentary by WBIR.

History of Cal Johnson Park and the Recreation Center

A Park For the Community

Established in 1922, Cal F. Johnson Park was created during segregation as a dedicated recreational space for Knoxville’s Black community. The five-acre park, developed through community advocacy, quickly became a central gathering place for social events, celebrations, and everyday leisure. Cal F. Johnson contributed directly to its development, funding features that helped define the space, including a marble entrance arch bearing his name and a memorial fountain.

Expansion

In 1955, the Knoxville City Planning Commission was looking to acquire the Payne Avenue Recreation Center and sell the facility to the Board of Education for the use of a new school. This caused quite a commotion due to the center, which could seat nearly 1,000 people, being the largest of its kind to cater to Black people in East Knoxville. In return for the center, Black citizens demanded that the city build another one of equal capacity. The commission agreed and $45,000 was used to construct a recreation at Cal Johnson Park. Today, the center is known to many as the Cal Johnson Recreation Center which remains nestled in the heart of downtown Knoxville. 

Concept Creation

By the 1960s, much began to change. When the Knoxville Housing Authority (KHA) began the first stages of the Mountain View Urban Renewal project in 1964, East Clinch Avenue and the surrounding area were among KHA’s primary targets. They razed all buildings and uprooted practically all of the Black population. As a result of Urban Renewal, Cal Johnson’s archway and fountain were demolished along with other amenities including the tennis courts, streetlamps, and swings.  Although Cal Johnson Park was spared from total destruction, much of its charm had been taken in the process.

CAL JOHNSON COMMUNITY CENTER

Located near the historic grounds of Cal Johnson Park, the Cal Johnson Community Center continues a legacy of recreation, gathering, and community life that began in 1922.


Today, the community center remains a central hub in downtown Knoxville, featuring one of the city’s largest gymnasiums, fitness facilities, meeting spaces, and outdoor amenities connected to the surrounding park.


In 2020, the center and park underwent a major renovation that reimagined the space for a new generation while honoring its past. The project introduced updated activity rooms, a fitness center, improved gathering spaces, a new playground, and revitalized basketball courts enhanced by public art celebrating local history and culture.


Though the landscape has changed, Cal Johnson Park lives on through the community center that now anchors the site, carrying forward its original purpose as a place for connection, recreation, and neighborhood life.

Cal Johnson's Family Burial Site

Three years after the establishment of Cal Johnson Park in 1922, Calvin F. Johnson passed away on April 7, 1925, at the age of 80. He is buried in the Johnson family plot at Odd Fellows Cemetery (2001 Bethel Avenue), where the site is enclosed by an iron fence.

Established in 1880 by the Banner Lodge Chapter of the Odd Fellows Fraternal Order and later expanded by several Black fraternal organizations, the cemetery serves as the final resting place for many of Knoxville’s early Black leaders. The Johnson family plot is located among these burials, situating the family within a broader network of individuals who played significant roles in the city’s early Black history.